HOW TO GO ABOUT PLANNING A PERIOD COSTUME

<< WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER MOTOR CAR

I. THE STORY OF PERIOD COSTUMES:II. EGYPT AND ASSYRIA >>

Besides the putty-coloured roadster lined with scarlet, black lined with russet

yellow, orange lined with black; there were limousines painted a delicate custard

colour, with top and rim of wheels, chassis and lamps of the same Nattier Blue as

the velvet lining, cushions and curtains. A beautiful and luxurious background and

how easy to be decorative against it to one who knows how!

Another popular colour scheme was a mauve body with top of canopy and rims of

wheels white, the entire lining of mauve, like the body. Imagine your woman with a

decorative instinct in this car. So obvious an opportunity would never escape her,

and one can see the vision on a Summer day, as she appears in simple white, softest

blue or pale pink, or better still, treating herself as a quaint nosegay of blush roses,

for-get-me-nots, lilies and mignonette, with her chiffons and silks or sheerest of

lawns.

"But how about me?" one hears from the girl of the open car--a racer perhaps,

which she drives herself. You are easiest of all, we assure you; to begin with, your

car being a racer, is painted and lined with durable dark colours--battleship grey,

dust colour, or some shade which does not show dirt and wear. The consequence is,

you will be decorative in any of the smart coats, close hats and scarfs in brilliant

and lovely hues,--silk or wool.

CHAPTER XIV

HOW TO GO ABOUT PLANNING A PERIOD COSTUME

ERE is a plan to follow when getting up a period costume:

We will assume that you wish to wear a Spanish dress of the time of

Philip IV (early seventeenth century). The first thing to give your

attention to is the station in life which you propose to represent. Granted that you

decide on a court costume, one of those made so familiar by the paintings of the

great Velasquez, let your first step be to get a definite impression of the outline of

such a costume. Go to art galleries and look at pictures, go to libraries and ask for

books on costumes, with plates.

You will observe that under the head of crinoline and hoop-skirt periods, there are a

variety of outlines, markedly different. The slope of the hip line and the outline of

the skirt is the infallible hall-mark of each of these periods.

Let it be remembered that the outline of a woman includes hair, combs, head-dress,

earrings, treatment of neck, shoulders, arms, bust and hips; line to the ankles and

shoes; also fan, handkerchief or any other article, which if a silhouette were made,

would appear. The next step is to ascertain what materials were available at the

time your costume was worn and what in vogue. Were velvets, satins or silks worn,

or all three? Were materials flowered, striped, or plain? If striped, horizontal or

perpendicular? For these points turn again to your art gallery, costume plates, or the

best of historical novels. If you are unable to resort to the sources suggested, two

courses lie open to you. Put the matter into the hands of an expert; there are many

to be approached through the columns of first-class periodicals or newspapers (we

do not refer to the ordinary dealer in costumes or theatre accessories); or make the

effort to consult some authority, in person or by letter: an actor, historian or

librarian. It is amazing how near at hand help often is, if we only make our needs

known. If the reader is young and busy, dancing and skating and sleeping, and

complains, in her winsome way, that "days are too short for such work," we would

remind her that as already stated, to carefully study the details of any costume, of

any period, means that the mind and the eye are being trained to discriminate

between the essentials and non-essentials of woman's costume in every-day life.

The same young beauty may be interested to know that at the beginning of

Geraldine Farrar's career the writer, visiting with her, an exhibition of pictures in

Munich, was amazed at the then, very young girl's familiarity with the manner of

artists--ancient and modern,--and exclaimed "I did not know you were so fond of

pictures." "It's not that," Farrar said, "I get my costumes from them, and a great

many of my poses."

PLATE XVII

Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig, patron of the

arts, exhibited in New York at Duveen

Galleries during Winter of 1916-1917 with

the Zuloaga pictures. The exhibition was

arranged by Mrs. Lydig.

This portrait has been chosen to illustrate two

points: that a distinguished decorative quality

is dependent upon line which has primarily to

do with form of one's own physique (and not

alone the cut of the costume); and the great

value of knowing one's own type.

Mrs. Lydig has been transferred to the canvas

by the clever technique of one of the greatest

modern painters, Ignacio Zuloaga, an artistic

descendant of Velasquez. The delightful

movement is that of the subject, in this case

kept alive through its subtle translation into

terms of art.

A Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig.

By I. Zuloago

Outline and material being decided, give your attention to the character of the

background against which you are to appear. If it is a ball-room, and the occasion a

costume-ball, is it done in light or dark colours, and what is the prevailing tone?

See to it that you settle on a colour which will be either a harmonious note or an

agreeable, hence impressive contrast, against the prevailing background. If you are

to wear the costume on a stage or as a living picture against a background arranged

with special reference to you, and where you are the central figure, be more subtle

and combine colours, if you will; go in for interesting detail, provided always that

you make these details have meaning. For example, if it be trimming, pure and

simple, be sure that it be applied as during your chosen period. Trimming can be

used so as to increase effectiveness of a costume by accentuating its distinctive

features, and it can be misused so as to pervert your period, whether that be the age

of Cleopatra, or the Winter of 1917. Details, such as lace, jewels, head-dresses,

fans, snuff-boxes, work baskets and flowers must be absolutely of the period, or not

at all. A few details, even one stunning jewel, if correct, will be far more

convincing than any number of makeshifts, no matter how attractive in themselves.

Paintings, plates and history come to our rescue here. If you think it dry work, try

it. The chances are all in favour of your emerging from your search spell-bound by

the vistas opened up to you; the sudden meaning acquired by many inanimate

things, and a new pleasure added to all observations.

That Spanish comb of great-great-grandmother's is really a treasure now. The

antique Spanish plaque you own, found to be Moorish lustre, and out of the attic it

comes! A Spanish miracle cross proves the spiritual superstition of the race, so

back to the junk-shop you go, hoping to acquire the one that was proffered.

Yes, Carmen should wear a long skirt when she dances, Spanish pictures show

them; and so on.

The collecting of materials and all accessories to a costume, puts one in touch, not

only with the dress, but the life of the period, and the customs of the times. Once

steeped in the tradition of Spanish art and artists, how quick the connoisseur is to

recognize Spanish influence on the art of Holland, France and England. Lead your

expert in costumes of nations into talking of history and we promise you pictures of

dynasties and lands that few historical writers can match. This man or woman has

extracted from the things people wore the story of where they wore them, and

when, and how; for the lover of colour we commend this method of studying

history.

If any one of our readers is casting about for a hobby and craves one with

inexhaustible possibilities, we would advise: try collecting data on periods in dress,

as shown in the art treasures of the world, for of this there is verily no end.

We warn the novice in advance that each detail of woman's dress has for one in

pursuit of such data the allure of the siren.

There is the pictured story of head-dresses and hats, and how the hair is worn, from

Cleopatra's time till ours; the evolution of a woman's sleeve, its ups and downs and

ins and outs as shown in art; the separation of the waist from skirt, and ever

changing line of both; the neck of woman's gown so variously cut and trimmed and

how the necklace changed likewise to accord; the passing of the sandals of the

Greeks into the poetic glove-fitting slippers of to-day.

One sets out gaily to study costumes, full of the courage of ignorance, the joyous

optimism of an enthusiast, because it is amusing and looks so simple with all the

material,--old and new, lying about one.

Ah, that is the pitfall--the very abundance of those plates in wondrous books, old

coloured prints and portraits of the past. To some students this kaleidoscopic vision

of period costumes never falls into definite lines and colour; or if the types are

clear, what they come from or merge into remains obscure.

For the eager beginner we have tried to evolve out of the whole mass of data a

system of origin and development as definite as the anatomy of the human body, a

framework on which to build. If our historical outline be clear enough to impress

the mental vision as indelibly as those primary maps of the earth did, then we feel

persuaded, the textless books of wonderful and beguiling costume plates will serve

their end as never before. We humbly offer what we hope may prove a key to the

rich storehouse.

Simplicity, and pure line, were lost sight of when overabundance dulled the senses

of the world. We could prove this, for art shows that the costuming of woman

developed slowly, preserving, as did furniture, the same classic lines and general

characteristics until the fifteenth century, the end of the Middle Ages.

With the opening up of trade channels and the possibilities of easy and quick

communication between countries we find, as we did in the case of furniture,

periods of fashion developing without nationality. Nations declared themselves in

the artistry of workmanship, as to-day, and in the modification and exaggeration of

an essential detail, resulting from national or individual temperament.

If you ask, "Where do fashions come from,--why 'periods'?" we would answer that

in the last analysis one would probably find in the conception of every fashion

some artist's brain. If the period is a good one, then it proves that fate allowed the

artist to be true to his muse. If the fashion is a bad one the artist may have had to

adapt his lines and colour or detail to hide a royal deformity, or to cater to the whim

of some wilful beauty ignorant of our art, but rich and in the public eye.

A fashion if started is a demon or a god let loose. As we have said, there is an

interesting point to be observed in looking at woman as decoration; whether the

medium be fresco, bas relief, sculpture, mosaic, stained glass or painting, the

decorative line, shown in costumes, presents the same recurrent types that we found

when studying the history of furniture.

For our present purposes it is expedient to confine ourselves to the observation of

that expression of civilisation which had root, so far as we know, in Assyria and

Egypt, and spread like a branching vine through Byzantium, Greece, Rome, Gothic

Europe and Europe of the Renaissance, on through the seventeenth, eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries, down to the present time.

Costumes for woman and man are supposed to have had their origin in a cord tied

about the waist, from which was suspended crude implements (used for the slaying

of beasts for food, and in self-defence); trophies of war, such as teeth, scalps, etc.

The trophies suspended, partly concealed the body and were for decoration, as was

tattooing of the skin. Clothes were not the result of modesty; modesty followed the

partial covering of the human body. Modesty, or shame, was the emotion which

developed when man, accustomed to decoration--trophies or tattooing--was

deprived of all or part of such covering. What parts of the body require

concealment, is purely a matter of the customs prevailing with a race or tribe, at a

certain time, and under certain conditions.

PLATE XVIII

Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) who has been

one of the greatest beauties of modern times

and a marked example of a woman who has

always understood her own type, to costume

it.

She agrees that this photograph of her, in an

evening wrap, illustrates a point she has

always laid emphasis on: that a garment

which has good lines--in which one is a

picture--continues wearable even when not

the dernier cri of fashion.

This wrap was worn by Mrs. Langtry about

two years ago.

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